Gayle.

Mine love a Macca's cone as a treat every now and then. I think it's incredibly rude to tell someone what they can and can't feed their dog. Not a shop I'd be in any hurry to go back to.

I got my goldfish from Petstock because I simply didn't know where else to get them from. There is an aquarium shop here....owned by the same people who own the pet shop that sold puppies and kittens before it closed down. I am not supporting them in any way, shape or form. My fish have now had their own babies and gone from 6 to 15, so I suppose Im now a byb of goldfish.

Shortstep, thanks for your explanation, it's really interesting. I suppose the same could be said of Kelpies, and to a degree....Australian Shepherds. The working line Aussies are distinctly different to the show ones....smaller, lighter, finer boned, shorter coats and with some amazing colours and markings.

No. They'll be waiting a very long time.

I remember something about the Border Collie people having to decided whether the breed was Aussie or Scottish? So you might be correct. The first border collie standard was written in NZ and they may also have had the first shows featuring them as well. ANKC takes the credit for "developing" the BC but it is debatable. Hahaha, so typical. Aussies like to take the credit for NZ accomplishments, unless it's Russell Crowe then we're happy to give him right back.

What is the Murray River Retriever? http://www.mrccr.org/

Murray River Retriever? Not a registered breed but very recognisable. And the JRT was also "developed" here too, I think.

The Australian Shepherd was unknown here until the early 1990's. Wasn't the standard for the Border Collie developed here? I know they originated in the UK, but something about them was developed here.

I thought I was confused, which isn't unusual, but I went back a page and you definitely said your girl gets a chicken wing for lunch.

If the dog regularly isnt eating all of it's meal, feed it less. You're only wasting food otherwise. ETA, maybe it's time to switch her to one meal a day. Some dogs don't eat two meals. But to be honest, if one of my dogs regularly wasn't eating all of their meal in one go, they'd be getting a lot less next time. And if the dog is healthy and only eating one mouthful of it's morning meal, it wouldn't get another morning meal.

I used to use flaxseed oil when I made my own raw food, but top quality commercial kibbles contain oils and there's no need to add extra. Dusty is a 3 1/2 yo Australian Shepherd, she weighs around 23 kg and she gets 2/3 cup of BH per day and a raw chicken drum. Isaak is a 14 month old Aussie who weighs around 22 kg and he gets 2 cups of BH and a raw chicken drum. I think age is more relative than size.......also energy levels. Dusty is quite content to snooze the day away, any extra food and she looks like a wombat. Whereas Isaak is very ribby, but he is whether I increase his food or not, and he never stops moving. Olivebaby, if you want to switch to BH, mix 50/50 with RC, feed that for a few days then drop to 75/25 then move her straight to BH. It shouldn't take longer than a week. But the dog should be eating what you want her to eat, not what she dictates.

You shouldn't need to mix it with oil, it already contains emu oil. Try giving the dog less, just give it dry or use it for training treats from your hand......ie, give the dog a training session at meal time and reward with BH pieces from your hand until you've used up a meal sized portion.

I've got the Canon 24mm f2.8 and it's a very under-appreciated lens. VERY sharp at f2.8, probably the sharpest lens wide open, that I've got. Most of the rest benefit from stopping down a bit.

I'm not sure what I'd be hiding, I am not a breeder, I show occasionally and every now and then I enter an ANKC sanctioned event. I don't mind providing photo ID but I'm not sure how my 17yo daughter can when she doesn't have any. She does none of the things I do, she's simply the co-owner of 3 of our dogs.

+ 1 Dogs are scavengers by nature. I would be worried if my dogs were not hungry all the time. I do not like to see dogs fed until they are full. Too many owners worry about their dogs being hungry and I believe this is why so many dogs are over weight. As long as the dog is healthy and getting only what it needs regarding food in take then stop worrying IMO. Yep, dogs are food opportunists. My husband says "They can eat more than that!" and I say they can, but they're not going to. As long as they are in good health and not underweight, they can act as hungry as they want but they aren't getting more. And some dogs are master manipulators and learn very quickly what works to get food into their mouths........puppy eyes, a paw held up, a cute look.......they know what works.

My 17 yo daughter holds joint membership with me and she has no photo ID. She also has a different legal name to the name she goes by. Not sure how were going to comply.

Those kibbles all have completely different ingredient lists, there isn't a lot in common between any of them, so I dare say the dog would be hungry on most kibbles, not just Black Hawk. Does she, at any stage during the day, get a raw bone? Mine all start the day with a raw chicken drumstick for breakfast, the BH is their dinner plus they get a little bit each at bed time.

Yellowgirl, that's a lovely story but coming from you, it does not surprise me in the slightest. You are one of the kindest, most compassionate people I have ever come across.

I've never heard of this breed and my brain automatically thought "a big, chocolate, strawberry and vanilla dog". LOL! They are really quite an amazing looking dog......not at all pretty though. They look like something out of a fantasy novel, very extreme features and probably not everyones cup of tea but if you saw one, I'd guarantee you'd be staring at it for a while!

I live in a tiny village in country Victoria. Population.....ooooh.....about 150-ish. I have 4 pedigree Australian Shepherds, and when I'm in our back paddock, I can see across the neighbours lot into another house that has a couple of VERY nice dalmatians. I don't know if they are show dogs, they might very well be, I have seen a dog trailer parked there with a kennel name on it. One day over summer I wandered across the road from our house to the cricket ground to see the local match, and met a guy taking his beautiful Neopolitan Mastiff for a walk. Not often you see one of them out and about, in fact the only place I'd ever seen one before was at a dog show. Up around the corner is an old Alaskan Malamute, who trots out to say hi (or bugger off, depending on his mood). Someone here breeds poodles, I have seen their ad on the DOL puppy listings, but I don't know whereabout in the village they live.

I usually buy a catalogue, mostly to support the club holding the show. I don't have much interest in breeds other than my own, so if there's a group cat available, I'll order that rather than a full one.

We store ours in 2 x 20kg plastic boxes with snaplock lids. We designed our pantry so that the lower part will fit these boxes perfectly, then the shelf above them is handy for placing the bowls as I fill each one. Ours never smells, the pantry is cool and dark and the containers are pretty much airtight.

Sounds like "wanting their cake and eating it too" kind of arrangement. I co-owned a bitch with her breeder and was very happy with the arrangement. The dog lived with me, I paid for her normal upkeep (food, vet bills etc) we shared the costs associated with her breeding (health checks, vet bills with breeding) etc. We would also share the money from the sale of any puppies. She came to me for free. I knew the breeder though. Plus side for me? A lovely, show quality bitch that did not cost me anything to buy. Plus for the breeder? Keeping options open on a bitch they couldn't keep in their kennels. I wouldn't touch the above arrangement with a 10 foot pole. Sounds like a very selfish breeder. I have only done it once but yes I did charge full pet price but I would have paid for the health testing and they would have been paid a stud fee. Reduced if it was over my own dogs but full prcie for any others. Thank you Cowanbree. This we would have been fine with however we were responsible for all health testing and their was no stud fee for us at all and if we were to allow the dog to be breed with another pure breed dog then they requested the full stud fee from this. Not that we would ever offer a dog on stud because it is of zero interest to us. Was going to say this. Merle x merle in my breed not allowed. Dogs can be born blind or deaf or both - and very very high chance of this happening. Gayle - are their the same health issues with merle x merle matings as there are in other breeds? Causing hearing and sight problems? Yes, I would imagine it's exactly the same gene as in Border Collies. And causes the same problems. It's not done often, but it IS done and the pups are allowed to be registered as per any other mating. My merle x merle girl has a colomboma in one eye and iris hypoplasia in the other. Neither affects her sight at all, but the lack of an iris affects the light control and she squints in sunlight. I have done some research on iris hypoplasia and as far as I can tell, she carries the double merle gene and that is a direct result of it.

My experience is different. I went from struggling to keep weight on my dog to struggling to keep it off following a spey. Our exercise regime has not changed. RubyBlue makes an important point. Desexing often makes it necessary to cut food and increase exercise. Even then it can be hard. I think many trainers, breeders and showies are so used to adjusting food and exercise up and down for different dogs for different purposes that they forget that your average person finds it much harder to make judgements about whether the dog is getting fat and then follow through with changed arrangements. I don't think it does the desexing cause a lot of good to tell people that their experience of a dog getting fat and lazy is a result of overfeeding rather than desexing. It's often the result of a person not adjusting their dog's diet and lifestyle to compensate for the effects of desexing. My husband told me (after he looked after Benson and Shae for a few days, on his own) "Shae can eat more than that, that's hardly ANYTHING for her, she'll be finished that in seconds". I had to explain to him that just because she can eat more (she could eat 10kgs of food given the opportunity), doesn't mean she should be given it and she'll eat ten scoops just as fast as the two scoops she's allowed. Shae is a teeny, tiny neutered Australian Shepherd bitch. She wouldn't stand more than 16 inches at the shoulder and I doubt she weighs more than 15 kgs. I am under no illuision as to what she'd look like if she was allowed her fill of food every day. She doesn't get much food because there's not much of her to fill up, and she's nicely lean and muscled on my preferred diet (2/3 cup high quality kibble and one raw chicken drum a day). I hate to think how much food he fed her in the few days he was in charge! LOL! And I have no doubt she'll look forward to my next trip away!

Oh dear, how sad. They leave a massive hole when they've gone, don't they? Much bigger than the space they occupied. About the one left behind......well, I'm afraid the answer to a similar situation for me was to get another dog. When my Maltese girl died, her lifelong companion got up on the couch, refused to eat and I thought she'd be gone pretty soon too, so I got an Australian Shepherd puppy. The old girl hated him on sight but she got off the couch to defend everything she deemed was hers and life went back to normal for her. But my solution maybe isn't ideal for everyone.